It is not unusual for me to go a week between grocery trips. However, that is usually when I am not thinking about going to the grocery store. This week is different. This week I have made a conscientious decision not to go to the grocery store until at least Saturday. The last time I went was exactly one week ago and it was mostly to shop for my hubby's birthday party. So, in my mind, going another week without buying "family food" was akin to Mission Impossible.
I would like to say that I am totally motivated by altruistic reasons. I would like to say that it is because I recently learned that everyday American family throws away 122 pounds of food a month. I want to wrap myself up in a blanket of self-righteous do-goodery, but that wouldn't be exactly true.
Nope. The truth is that we need to make a little extra wiggle room in our budget. I went a bit overboard with Baconpalooza (aka my husband's birthday party) and I am now forced to make it up in other areas. I am not "too big to fail," so I have to bail out my own leaking boat. I know, I am so old school. Bail myself out! Do people even do that anymore? But I digress.
So this week, we are eating only what is in our house already. At first I was concerned as to how I would feed a family of 6 without the opportunity to run out to the grocery store at a moment's notice. Surely we would starve, and I was eyeing which one of the children that we would consume first in our own personal Donner Pass. However, as we close in on the end of the week, I am happy to report that none of the children have been consumed, not even the dog. In fact, we've eaten pretty well.
The meals are starting to get a little more creative (Teddy had dry Rice Crispy cereal this morning and Rachel had two graham crackers), but we are using things that might normally just get thrown away. When I look in my pantry and fridge, I see how much food we really have and it is quite a bit.
Still, we have run out of milk and eggs, which has not gone without complaint. And I firmly believe that a lack of peanut butter and jelly could cause a mutiny. Nonetheless, we trudge onward towards Saturday. So even though this started out as purely a budgetary exercise, it has opened my eyes to how much food is actually in the house when I find myself saying, "There is nothing to eat in this house."
"And I tell you what, now that I'm grown and have kids of my own, I understand why my mother didn't want to take three youngins in the grocery store. I would rather take a beating with a brick stick than take kids in the grocery store. Cause as soon as those doors slide open, those kids start begging like homeless people at Christmas time." - Jeff Foxworthy